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Kobe charged

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Kobe Bryant was charged Friday with sexually assaulting a 19-year-old woman in a case bound to tarnish the career of one of the NBA's brightest young superstars.
Bryant denied the charge, fighting back tears at a news conference in Los Angeles and saying he was guilty only of adultery.

August 1, 2003 -- NBA superstar Kobe Bryant initially lied to authorities by repeatedly denying he had sex with a 19-year-old hotel concierge, a new report said yesterday.

But Bryant flip-flopped barely 24 hours later, when he admitted messing around with the Colorado woman who was accusing him of raping her the night of June 30.

The married Bryant copped to having sex with the woman in his Cordillera, Colo., hotel room during an interrogation by Eagle County authorities, with a lawyer present, according to the Vail Daily.

The interrogation came the day the Los Angeles Lakers guard was having knee surgery at a clinic.

Several weeks later, the 24-year-old Bryant was charged with sexual assault, a crime he denies committing, insisting the sex was consensual, albeit adulterous.

Yesterday, lawyers for media outlets argued in an Eagle courtroom that a judge should unseal documents in the case, including the affidavit supporting Bryant's arrest and other papers that could detail evidence.

County Judge Fred Gannett said he did not expect to rule until after Wednesday, when Bryant is scheduled to appear in court for the first time.

Yesterday, Bryant, through his lawyers Hal Hadden and Pamela Mackey, asked to be excused from appearing in court Wednesday for the first hearing on the charges against him, but Gannett quickly denied the request.

Also yesterday, the Rocky Mountain News reported that the accuser's vaginal area suffered trauma during her encounter with Bryant.

The revelations came amid multiple reports that the college student had engaged in some consensual intimacy with Bryant during her visit to his room at around 11 p.m., where she reportedly stayed for less than a half-hour.

The Vail Daily quoted sources saying Bryant and the woman started "fooling around" but that she shortly thereafter told him to stop.

"She was trying to leave and was not allowed to leave," a source told the Daily.

The newspaper also reported that the accuser went to the hotel lobby in a "shocked stupor," and that she showed signs of physical injury.

Bryant appeared in the lobby later that night to play chess, according to sources quoted by the Daily.

Gerald Lefcourt, a New York City defense lawyer not associated with the case, said news that there may have been consensual intimacy between Bryant and the woman is "certainly problematic" for the prosecution and a positive development for Bryant.

"I think that he's halfway home," said Lefcourt. "The case is going to turn on how you say no, if you said no, in what way you said no, did you think it, did you communicate it."

The lawyer also said the accuser's psychological problems ? she apparently has been hospitalized twice in the past six months for drug overdoses ? now "become extremely relevant" for the defense.

He said such problems bolster a possible defense argument that she had consensual sex with Bryant and then made up a rape allegation after experiencing regret.[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. (AP) -- Kobe Bryant called 911 the day before he surrendered to police on a sexual assault accusation, and medics later treated a female at his home, officials say.

The Los Angeles Lakers star hung up the phone without talking, but a dispatcher called back, speaking to three people, including Bryant, before sending police and paramedics, Sgt. Steve Shulman said Friday. Medics arrived at 12:40 a.m.

``He confirmed that the reason for the call that he made initially was for medical assistance at the residence and the medical assistance was not for him, it was for someone else,'' Shulman said.

Bryant made the call the day before he returned to Colorado on July 4 to surrender to police. He has been charged with one count of felony sexual assault against a 19-year-old employee at the Lodge & Spa at Cordillera near Edwards, Colo. He had been in Colorado for surgery on his knee.

Bryant, who is free on $25,000 bail, is expected to make his first court appearance Wednesday. He has said his accuser had sex with him willingly.

Following the 911 call from Bryant's home, police determined there was no criminal conduct and no report was taken, Shulman said. He characterized the call as a ``medical assistance call.''

Medics treated a female at the house but did not need to take her to the hospital, said Vickie Cleary, emergency services manager for the Newport Beach Fire Department.

No further details were immediately available, and it was unclear whether the medics treated a woman or child. Bryant and his wife, Vanessa, had a baby girl in January.

Paramedics were summoned to the house for a similar medical emergency on March 5, Cleary said. During that call, paramedics took a female to the hospital after evaluating and treating her at the home.

``A friend of the (patient) arrived and assumed responsibility for her baby and he secured the home,'' a report by fire officials read in part. Medics spent an hour at the house before taking the woman by ambulance.

Cleary did not say whether the female treated was the same for both calls.

Krista Flannigan, a spokeswoman for the Eagle County prosecutor, declined comment about the report detailing the Bryant 911 call.

A telephone message seeking comment from Bryant's attorneys in Denver was not returned.